


Like a Shooting Star (Feet Still on the Ground)

by ozuma



Category: Tales of Xillia, Tales of Xillia 2
Genre: Alcohol, Drunken Confessions, Drunkenness, Hand Jobs, M/M, New Years
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-26
Updated: 2016-02-26
Packaged: 2018-05-23 07:03:30
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6108817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ozuma/pseuds/ozuma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say that any wish you make on the fireworks in Trigleph on New Year's Eve will come true the next year.</p><p>Not that Alvin has ever believed that. Mostly he just wishes he was drunk enough to get through the night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a Shooting Star (Feet Still on the Ground)

**Author's Note:**

> I meant for this to be a timely fic posted close to New Years. And yet here we are at the end of February...
> 
> I guess I got the idea of wishing on fireworks from Final Fantasy XIII? It's been awhile since I played that game. I like the idea, though.
> 
> I'm also all for any excuse to write Balan teasing Alvin.

They say that if you make a wish on Trigelph's fireworks on New Year's Eve, it’d come true the next year.

Not that Alvin had really understood what that meant as a kid. He probably wished for something dumb like his mom making him peach pie. And, well, back then that was practically a given.

By now he hardly remembered them. Heck, he’d been surprised when Balan had brought them up a month ago.

Maybe that was why he’d taken such a liking to Xian Du’s prayer banners. The number he’d hung up in his mother’s room alone, he’d forgotten by now.

But wishing on fireworks or even prayer banners was just something people told gullible kids and desperate believers. Or in the Elympian case: desperate debtors who would cling to any kind of luck they could find.

Alvin had long since given up on the idea that just _wishing_ for something could make anything better.

* * *

 

“Alvin!”

He nearly jumped, turning toward the source of the voice. The voice that haunted his dreams. The voice that he hadn’t heard for weeks. Had wanted to hear more than anything.

“Well well well, if it isn’t the busy honors student,” Alvin said with an easy smile. Jude was smiling up at him with that earnestness he’d come to associate with the kid. An earnestness that he’d come to love. “Taking a break from the lab for once?”

Jude scratched the back of his head nervously. “More like Leia would have dragged me out of the lab by force if I’d said ‘no.’”

Alvin couldn’t help laughing. He slid an arm around Jude’s shoulder, reveling in the close contact. “She got you too, huh?”

“Pretty much.” Jude chuckled and Alvin sighed internally. He’d missed that laugh so much.

“Excited for the fireworks?”

Jude nodded. “They’re an Elympian tradition, right?”

“Something like that.” Alvin supposed he should do his job as the resident Elympian in the group. He leaned down closer to Jude. “They say that if you make a wish on them, they’ll come true, you know...”

Jude pushed him away lightly. “I’m not a kid, Alvin.”

Alvin laughed as he watched Jude pull away and head down the hallway.

It was New Year’s Eve, and everyone had gotten back together due to Leia’s insistence on doing things as a group every now and then. When Alvin had tried to weasel out of it by pointing out that there’s no way her apartment would fit so many people, she’d revealed that Rowen had so graciously gotten them an executive suite at one of Trigelph’s nicest hotels. It was actually Gaius’s own suite, but he hardly ever used it. Rowen gave Leia access on the condition that they didn’t trash the place.

And so Alvin had finally broken down and come along. He knew Jude would be there, too. As much as he hated to admit it, that alone made him want to at least drop in. They’d hardly seen each other since their grand adventure in saving the world (take two), but the kid had always been on his mind for reasons he really didn’t like to dwell on.

Which is how he found himself sitting behind a high counter dividing the kitchen and the spacious living room nursing a glass of incredibly expensive whiskey and mentally calculating how drunk he would need to be to get through the evening before slinking back to his apartment and going back to worrying about the future (or lack thereof) of his business.

“Leia, don’t you think that’s enough out of Gaius’s private stock of liquor?”

Over on one of the couches in the living room, Jude was gazing warily at the bottles Leia had set on the table.

Rowen had stepped out hours ago to deal with some emergency ambassador business, which had left Alvin as the oldest adult to watch the group. At least until Balan had shown up.

And really, Alvin _had_ intended on being the responsible one… until Leia found that bottle of incredibly expensive whiskey. If he was going to go into the new year drunk, at least he could do it in style this time.

“Oh wow, this wine is _super_ vintage!” Nova was cradling one of the bottles in her hands as she read the label. “We should totally open this one.”

“Jude, get the cork screw!” Leia ordered as Nova held the bottle out. On either side of the young bank teller were her sister who was pointedly ignoring everyone while on her phone and Elle, who was regarding the entire scene with her usual bright curiosity.

With Nova and Leia’s eyes fixed on him, Jude sighed and gave up on resisting. Instead, he got up and headed toward the kitchen, which took him in Alvin’s direction.

Alvin shifted his gaze to the reddish-gold depths of the glass in his hand. He wasn’t drunk enough to deal with this.

“Hey, Alvin, you mind passing me the bottle opener? I think it’s in the drawer close to you,” Jude asked wearily, as he pointed to the drawers under the counter.

Alvin raised an eyebrow. “Joining in on the festivities, are we? Don’t worry, I won’t tell your parents you’re drinking underage.” He grinned at Jude’s obvious irritation because even now the kid was way too easy to get riled up and Alvin couldn’t help it.

“Please, Alvin? Before Leia gets anymore crazy ideas,” Jude practically pleaded.

He tried to cover up his surprise at Jude’s earnest request by taking another long drink. Jude’s pleading tone was something that popped up far too often in his dreams on restless nights when he’d wake up drenched in sweat. He shelved the thought and reached into one of the drawers, finding a particularly fancy bottle opener and handing it over to Jude. The moment that his hand touched Jude’s seemed to linger and Alvin couldn’t help locking eyes with him. There was something different in Jude’s expression today, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was.

Jude accepted the bottle opener gratefully. “You should join us, Alvin.”

“Thanks, but I’m think I’m good for now. When you get to my age, board games just don’t seem as fun anymore.”

Jude raised an eyebrow but seemed to accept Alvin’s answer. “Well, if you change your mind, feel free to.”

“Maybe when Rowen gets back,” he added with a grin. “A shame that he had to step out. I hear he’s quite good at opening wine bottles with a saber.”

Jude sighed. “Don’t tell Leia that. She’s got enough crazy ideas for the night.”

Alvin chuckled. “Don’t worry, kid. I’ve got your back in case things get too crazy.”

Jude actually looked visibly relieved as he rushed back to the living room.

“Smooth,” a voice to Alvin’s left said.

Alvin glanced over, eyes narrowed, at his cousin sitting two seats away at the same counter. Balan had dropped by, said his hellos, and then parked himself at the small bar. And Alvin knew damn well that wasn’t by accident.

“Don’t know what you’re talking about.” Alvin turned his attention back to his drink. He realized as soon as the glass touched his lips that he’d just taken Balan’s bait.

“Certainly nothing about a certain crush on a certain individual that you’re dying to confess to?”

Alvin practically choked mid drink and slammed his glass down as the alcohol burned its way down his throat. He turned back toward Balan to see the man’s elbows on the counter, his chin cradled in his hands as he gazed back intently.

“It’s shit like this that makes you offer me free drinks all the time, isn’t it?”

Balan placed a hand on his chest in feigned offense. “Are you insinuating that I would _dare_ take advantage of my own blood? You wound me, Alfred.”

“Not deeply enough,” Alvin muttered into his glass. He was a sucker for going out drinking with Balan because chances were drinks would be taken care of by him. Especially lately when Alvin was strapped for cash. And Balan had a way of getting through his lowered defenses and weaseling secrets out of him. Truth be told, he _did_ enjoy spending time with his only remaining close family, even if he embarrassed himself half the time.

“He talks about you, you know.” Balan’s tone softened. “Whenever we’re in the lab. He’s worried about you. He just wishes he had more time to check on you.”

Alvin grimaced. The last thing he needed was Jude worrying about him. “You’re telling me this _now_?”

“If I’d told you earlier, you’d have definitely avoided this party,” Balan said with a grin. “You could at least tell Jude how you feel, Alfred.”

Alvin would sooner shoot himself in the foot. “No thanks. And last I checked, you’re just as single as I am. Are you sure you should be giving me dating advice?”

That earned him a chuckle from his cousin. “Yes yes, the life of a spyrix researcher is so very lonely. So at the very least I have an excuse. But you,” he gestured toward the living room, “have tons of connections. And in any case, how else will you carry on the Svent name?”

“Ha ha ha, funny,” Alvin replied in a flat tone. As if dating Jude would change that. “I gave up on the family inheritance, remember?” Sometimes he wondered if that was a mistake. But it was that or jump into a position that he knew he’d hate. He wasn’t suited for that kind of life.

“You know, for a while I thought he was smitten with that other man, what was his name…” Balan took a drink from his own glass as he mulled the thought over. “Ludger, was it?”

Alvin really did end up coughing and sputtering this time. Thankfully, Leia and Nova over in the living room were making too much noise for them to be likely to hear him.

“Ludger’s gone,” Alvin explained in a warning tone. Balan was starting to encroach on territory he was better off leaving alone.

“Hm, yes. So I heard. But in any case, Jude said they had just been friends and he had someone else he liked when Mary teased him about it. I wonder who he was talking about…”

As much as he hated to admit it, Balan’s words lit a spark of hope in his chest. Maybe he had a chance… he pushed the thought away immediately. Jude could mean anyone else. Even Milla, though she was technically unavailable at the moment.

“In any case, you know I have your back.” To Balan’s credit, he did seem legitimately sincere this time. “I really am worried about you,” he added.

Alvin shrugged. “Get in line. Everyone’s worried about me these days. People were worried about me even back in the day. It’s just the effect I have on people.”

A moment later, the cork of the second bottle of wine that Leia and Nova had retrieved popped off and hit Jude squarely in the forehead. Elle burst out laughing and even Vera seemed to be smirking a little. Alvin couldn’t help laughing, himself, as crappy as he felt.

“Ah, youth…” he heard Balan croon wistfully as they watched Jude practically wrest the bottle away from an already tipsy Leia.

* * *

 

“Okay, Jude, it’s your turn!” Leia picked up a card and handed it to him. By now there were three empty bottles of wine on the table.

Jude looked like he was about ready to go to collapse on the couch. He took the card and yawned. “Seriously? This is dumb, Leia.”

“Read it!” She ordered in a voice that was a bit too loud even for her.

Jude shrugged. “If I were to have one wish, what would I wish for?”

“Ohhh, that’s a good one!” Nova giggled. “Well, Jude?”

“Um… my research going well?”

“Boring!” Leia declared. “Let’s make it more interesting. What would you wish for in a _girlfriend_?”

Jude immediately glanced away from them. “Come on, Leia, that’s dumb…”

“That just means you don’t want to tell us!”

He gazed down at his empty wine glass before answering, “I don’t know? I guess my type is someone older…? And we’d probably have to be friends first… I haven’t really thought about it, to be honest.”

“So you’re just going to watch the fireworks and wish, ‘Gee, I’d like to meet some hot older person,’” Leia said in a bad impression of Jude’s voice.

“That’s not what I mean!”

Nova, Leia, and Elle all broke into a giggle fit much to Jude’s chagrin.

Watching all of this, Alvin gulped down the rest of the whiskey in his glass. He did _not_ need to be hearing this. The liquid burned its way down his throat and he coughed a bit despite himself while doing his best to ignore Balan’s piercing stare.

Jude’s vague criteria could apply to anyone. Older? Well, Jude was definitely smitten with Milla but that was beyond a long distance relationship at this point. And how much older? Five years older? Ten? Alvin didn’t even fall in either of those ranges. And was Jude even into guys? Alvin had always gotten the sense that he really did swing both ways, but…

“Alfred?”

Alvin nearly jumped out of his seat. He turned to find his cousin pointing to the living room. “They’re inviting you to join them.” Everyone’s eyes were on him suddenly, much to his horror.

“Um, well…”

He ended up joining them for what eventually turned into another board game session. Jude was teetering back and forth dangerously but still planning out his moves better than Leia and Nova. He’d just bought up Trigleph Square and was robbing the other two blind. Alvin, meanwhile, had been stuck in Jail for his past two turns.

When it wasn’t his turn, Jude had a tendency to lean on Alvin for support. Generally Alvin responded only by taking another drink from his often refilled glass of whiskey. He _still_ wasn’t drunk enough for this.

In the end, the group in the living room got a little too invested in Gaius’s personal stock of alcohol. It was all too obvious when Balan joined them all in their overly enthusiastic toast to the upcoming new year, which ended with Alvin steadying Leia so she didn’t spill wine all over her shirt.

“I think that’s enough wine for tonight.” Alvin took the half-full wine glass from Leia’s hand and set it down on the coffee table, careful to not spill it, himself.

Leia punched him in the side half-heartedly. “Hey, who made _you_ the boss here?”

“ _I_ did,” Alvin replied as he carefully escorted Leia back onto the couch. “You’ll thank me in the morning,” he added as Leia pouted at him.

By that point, as Alvin glanced around him to see even Elle falling asleep despite having only had sparkling juice, he realized that now was probably a good time to end their little celebration. Glancing up at the clock to see that it was only 11 PM, he had to laugh at how they hadn’t even made it to midnight to watch Trigelph’s famous fireworks. He’d be sure to tease Leia about that the next time they met up.

The only other person still conscious was Vera, who still seemed to be pointedly ignoring everyone while on her GHS. Alvin couldn’t blame her, he supposed. He had a hunch that Nova had dragged her here, and he didn’t envy her job of cleaning up the mess left at Spirius with the position of CEO now being definitively empty.

“So much for staying up for the fireworks.” Alvin ran a hand through his hair. He had a bad habit of doing that when he’d had too much to drink in a last ditch effort to focus his thoughts. It wasn’t helping as much as he’d hoped at the moment.

“We should at least clean up before heading out. I don’t think your friend Rowen would appreciate the open wine bottles and empty glasses lying around,” Balan pointed out.

Alvin didn’t respond, instead choosing to lean down and pick up the wine glasses closest to him on the coffee table.

It took a bit, but eventually he, a grumpy Vera, and Balan got the place tidied up. That just left one matter unsettled…

“I’ll escort Ms. Rolando and Ms. Marta home,” Balan said far too quickly for Alvin’s liking.

Vera sighed, as she pushed a precariously leaning Nova away from herself. “We’ll, I suppose I’ll drag her home. This wouldn’t be the first time…”

That just left one person. Suddenly everyone’s eyes were on Alvin. He swallowed thickly, wondering if this was some conspiracy against him. Going by Balan’s easygoing smile, this was at least partially planned.

“I guess I’ll…” He glanced down at Jude sleeping on the couch, curled up adorably like a kitten. “I guess I’ll get this kid home and make sure he’s okay.”

“Sounds good.” Balan waved at Alvin affectionately as he gathered Elle up in his arms. “We’re depending on you, Alfred~”

Alvin narrowed his eyes at his cousin. In any case, Jude was more important right now. The poor kid was undoubtedly a total lightweight.

* * *

 

“I am _way_ too drunk for this shit,” Alvin muttered as he stopped to lean against a low wall on one of Trigleph’s streets. The city was more crowded than usual at this time due to the much anticipated firework show. It was bad enough stumbling through the crowd in his half drunken state. He also had to deal with keeping Jude on his back to throw him further off balance. People kept giving Alvin suspicious glares, which he couldn’t really blame them for.

Though he’d never visited Jude at his apartment, he still remembered its location after having helped him move in what seemed like ages ago.

Eventually, he found himself standing before the door of Jude’s apartment. Fumbling with his keys, he found the spare that Jude had given him shortly after moving in and unlocked the door. Practically stumbling inside, he groped for the light switch. When his hand stumbled over it, the lights blinked on to reveal a messy apartment with papers occupying most flat surfaces, some of them in precarious piles. Alvin did his best to maneuver around some of the stacks as he made his way to the lone, beat up couch in what he remembered as being the living room. It wasn’t until he got closer that he realized the couch cushions were home to a few more stacks of books.

“You have _got_ to be kidding me,” he grumbled to himself as he adjusted Jude on his back and marched down the adjoined hallway to Jude’s room. It had been over a year since he’d been here, and the place was barely recognizable.

After carefully depositing Jude onto the bed, Alvin nearly collapsed onto it, himself. Looking back, he hadn’t had anything to eat before the party. He was definitely paying for that now.

“Alvin…?”

Jude seemed to have woken up, finally.

“Hey,” was all that Alvin could think to say as he met Jude’s gaze.

“Aren’t we gonna miss the fireworks show?”

Alvin laughed as he reached out to ruffle Jude’s hair. “Pretty sure neither of us are gonna make it at this rate.”

Jude made a face that was half a pout and half sleepy acceptance. “Guess not.” His lips curved into a smile. “Thanks, by the way.”

“For what?”

“For bringing me home.” He scooted closer and reached out to cup Alvin’s face, stroking his thumb over Alvin’s cheek slowly.

And then suddenly Jude was close. Way too close. Close enough that Alvin could smell his warm, wine-tinged breath.

“I missed you,” Jude admitted.

“I never went anywhere,” Alvin answered hesitantly.

“No one’s seen you in _weeks_ ,” Jude pointed out. “We’re all worried about you, you know.”

“I’m fine,” Alvin lied.

That earned him an adorably drunken chuckle from Jude.

“Don’t think you can get a lie past me just ‘cause I’m tipsy.” Much to Alvin’s horror, Jude scooted closer.

He was gazing imploringly at him, now.

“We want to help, Alvin. We’re your _friends_.”

The way Jude slurred his words sometimes was pretty cute, Alvin noted in his drunken, anxiety fraught haze.

“Help me with what? I’m good, kid.”

Jude shook his head. “Liar.”

“Jude…”

“We _are_ friends, right?” Jude asked.

Alvin swallowed thickly. “Y-yeah. We’re friends.”

“What if we were more than friends?”

Alvin felt his heart drop. There was no way Jude would be saying this while sober. He glanced back at the boy.

Jude’s smile was just a bit lopsided and too close. _Far too close_.

“Alvin, I…” He started to say while Alvin’s mind was racing. “I…”

“Jude,” he forced himself to say. “You’re drunk.”

Jude shook his head, strands of his unruly hair brushing against Alvin’s forehead. “So?” He glanced up, his gaze meeting Alvin’s again. At this point, Alvin was scrambling for some kind of response in his drunken haze. He couldn’t count the number of things he’d done after a long night of drinking that he regretted the next day. He’d hate for the same thing to happen to Jude.

Yet the look in Jude’s eyes was far too focused for someone who’d had too much to drink. This close, Alvin could make out every bit of detail in Jude’s amber eyes. Smaller streaks of orange-brown in his irises melded into a soft amber.

“Jude…” Alvin murmured, their lips mere inches apart. He was so close and his reservations about the situation were beginning to fade into the recesses of his inebriated mind.

He wasn’t sure who moved in first or if they both did at the same time, but next thing he knew, Jude’s warm lips were pressed against his in what turned into a sloppy kiss. It was pretty obvious that Jude wasn’t very experienced, not that Alvin particularly cared at the moment. Jude tasted like expensive wine and Alvin couldn’t get enough of it.

Alvin finally pulled back with a gasp to find Jude gazing intently at him, lips red and as flushed as his cheeks.

“I like you,” Jude admitted with a nervous chuckle.

Alvin didn’t answer, instead slipping an arm around Jude and kissing him again, turning them so that Jude was on top of him on the bed. It was awkward and uncoordinated and their noses bumped a few times until Alvin tilted his head to get a better angle. His hands wandered up Jude’s sides, pushing his shirt up before slipping them under to feel the flushed skin beneath. Jude shivered slightly before doing the same.

When Alvin pulled back, he noticed a string of saliva between them before wiping it away. They were both drunk and tired and he felt like an idiot, but suddenly all that didn’t matter so much.

“I uh…” Alvin could feel his face heating up. “Same here. I gu-… yeah.”

Jude’s eyes lit up in a way that made Alvin’s heart skip a beat.

“So you’ll stop running away? From me at least?”

“I wasn’t-” Except he was. He hadn’t wanted everyone to see him struggling to prop up his crumbling business. It seemed easy enough to decline invitations to meet up. Make excuses whenever possible. He hadn’t changed as much as he’d hoped. “I’ll… try.”

“Gonna have to do better than that,” Jude replied sternly. He was about to say something else until he fell forward, head bumping into the crook of Alvin’s shoulder.

“Jude?!”

Jude giggled into his shoulder. “’m fine. Just… make everything stop spinning.”

He reached up to ruffle Jude’s hair again. “You’re way too cute like this.”

His only response was Jude’s incoherent mumbling into his shoulder.

They ended up settling on the bed so that Alvin was spooning Jude, his arms around his waist. He was already hard, just having Jude this close, though he wasn’t exactly sure of what to do about that at the moment.

“Someone’s over eager,” Jude said with a chuckle.

Alvin was about to protest until Jude grinded against him. His sharp intake of breath pretty much gave him away.

And then Jude was guiding Alvin’s hands lower. Alvin wasn’t sure of what he was getting at until his fingers brushed over Jude’s very obvious erection tenting his pants.

He laughed as he dipped his head to kiss Jude’s shoulder.

“I see how it is.”

His fingers moved up to find Jude’s belt. He palmed Jude through his pants with his other hand just as a tease. When Jude rutted up against him eagerly, he took that as a sign to continue. Unbuckling the belt was simple enough, though he didn’t bother removing it entirely. Instead, he unbuttoned Jude’s pants from there and slipped one hand inside.

“A-Alvin…” Jude gasped.

Alvin responded by leaving wet kisses along Jude’s shoulder. He smiled against Jude’s skin when he felt Jude’s hips buck up against his hand.

“You really are too cute,” he teased.

That just got him a soft, petulant whine as a response. He chuckled as he moved his hand lower to stroke Jude through his underwear. Jude’s cute little moans coaxed him further. He teased Jude a few more times before pulling his underwear down enough to free his cock, already hard and slick with precome.

“Someone’s eager,” Alvin echoed back at him.

Jude squirmed and grinded against Alvin again, eliciting a drawn out moan from him.

His hand on Jude’s cock moved faster, making sure to tease the head which earned him more high pitched moans from Jude. Before long, Jude was panting and pushing back against Alvin eagerly.

“I-I’m…” he started to say.

“Go ahead,” Alvin whispered into his ear, voice low, as he lightly squeezed the head of Jude’s cock.

Jude threw his head back with a gasp as he came.

“Fuck, you feel so good like this,” Alvin groaned as he stroked him through his orgasm.

After a few beats, Jude turned on the bed so that he was facing Alvin again. “Aren’t you also…?”

Alvin almost laughed at Jude’s way of referring to things like this. “I’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”

Jude shook his head. “Come on, just let me-” Before Alvin could stop him, Jude’s hands were unbuckling his belt.

“Whoa, hey now, kid. You don’t need to-” His protests were cut off by a sharp intake of breath when Jude boldly slid a hand past the hem of his pants.

Jude’s eyes were half-lidded, grin absolutely mischievous. “You were saying?”

“Shit, fine,” Alvin conceded before Jude’s hand slipped further into his boxers. He closed his eyes and tried to focus on the feeling of Jude’s hand stroking him slowly. He could only imagine how he looked right now, drunk and completely turned on. It had been a long time since he’d let someone see him so vulnerable like this. And maybe if he was sober he’d have been seriously bothered by it. Jude was inexperienced, sure, but the fact that it was Jude’s hands wrapped around his cock was all that mattered. He didn’t even bother holding back the embarrassing noises coming from the back of his throat as Jude stroked him to full hardness.

He opened his eyes to find Jude staring back at him with an adorably worried expression.

“Um… I’ve never really done this for someone else…”

He almost came just from the sight of Jude’s adorably flushed face; so uncertain about something as simple as this.

“It’s fine,” Alvin said between gritted teeth. “J-just keep going.”

Jude’s face turned even redder, and Alvin had to resist laughing. He reached down to place his hand over Jude’s and guide him as much as it was possible with both of them already tired. It wasn’t long before Alvin thrust into Jude’s hand and came with a low grunt. He pushed forward to capture Jude’s lips again, savoring the soft touch of Jude’s lips on his own.

He pulled back and reached up with his other hand to ruffle Jude’s hair. “Hey, don’t fall asleep on me, now.”

Jude yawned and opened his eyes a bit. “Hm? Sorry, just… really tired…”

“You’re gonna miss the fireworks if you do.”

That got his attention. “What?”

“You don’t hear them?”

The sound of a distant, muffled popping noise filled the air.

“We could probably see them from one of the windows,” Alvin added.

Jude closed his eyes again. “Mmm, too tired.”

He chuckled. “Same.”

“But then that means…”

“Hm?”

“Happy New Year, Alvin.” The smile that Jude offered him was soft and content and so very Jude that it was all Alvin could do to not pull him close with another kiss. His whole body felt heavy as he reached out to ruffle Jude’s hair fondly.

“Happy New Year, kid.”

He drifted off to sleep soon after Jude’s breathing evened out, Jude’s smile the last thing on his mind.

* * *

 

The first thing Alvin noticed upon waking up was that he was definitely not in his room. The second thing he noticed was the dull headache that he was all too familiar with. He’d been drinking, obviously. And so had everyone else, now that he thought about it. Balan, Leia, Nova, and…

He turned to find Jude still asleep, drool soaking the pillow he’d settled on. And then everything that happened the night before rushed into his memory. He nearly fell off the bed in his rush to get the hell out of there, only to realize that he wasn’t wearing pants. It was like that dream that everyone talked about having where you suddenly didn’t have any clothes on and you were out in public. Except in this case it was just him and Jude and that was _almost_ as bad. He finally found them at the foot of Jude’s bed and pulled them on hastily. He glanced at the bed in panic when he heard Jude stir slightly, but Jude just reached for the part of the blanket that Alvin had vacated to cover himself more.

It was the first day of the new year and he’d woken up in Jude’s bed. Without his pants.

Things were certainly off to a great start.

He escaped to Jude’s bathroom to clean himself up as much as he could. After splashing his face with cold water, he glanced up at the mirror to find a disheveled man with blood shot eyes staring back in the mirror. Waking up a wreck after a night of drinking was nothing new to him. Waking up after a night of drinking _next to Jude_ , on the other hand, was very very new.

“Alvin?”

The sound of Jude’s voice drifting over from the bedroom made him jump. He could make a run for it right now. Pretend it never happened. Try and laugh it off the next time he ran into Jude. But then a hazy memory from the night before surfaced in the back of his mind.

“Stop running away, huh…” he mumbled to his reflection.

He sighed, turning off the faucet and heading toward the kitchen. By the time he returned to the bedroom, glass of water in hand, Jude was sitting up in his bed, blanket wrapped around him like a cloak.

“You sleep okay?” Alvin asked as though they hadn’t been sharing the bed the whole night.

Jude rubbed his eyes before yawning. “Head hurts.”

Laughing, Alvin sat down on the edge of the bed and held out the glass of water. “Here, this’ll help a bit with the hangover.”

Jude did was he was told and downed the entire glass. He looked up at Alvin. “Did I really drink that much?”

“For a lightweight? Definitely.”

That earned him a glare, though Jude said nothing. A few moments passed by in uncomfortable silence until Jude finally spoke up again.

“I, um… I had fun last night.”

And there it was. The elephant in the room.

Alvin rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Sorry for um…” He wasn’t exactly sure what he was sorry for, now that he thought about it.

“Don’t be.” Jude scooted forward on the bed until he was next to Alvin. “I’ve wanted to tell you for a while now…”

“How long?” Alvin couldn’t help asking.

Jude let out a nervous laugh. “I don’t know. Since… we met? Since I moved here? I… I’m not really sure.”

He found that hard to believe. Didn’t Jude like Milla? The question was on the tip of his tongue.

“I like you both,” Jude clarified as though reading Alvin’s mind. “It’s… it’s hard to explain, I guess? I mean, a lot happened when I met both of you. And…” He placed his hand on top of Alvin’s on the sheets. “You’re both really important to me.”

Alvin could feel his face heating up. He was glad that Jude was facing the other direction at the moment.

“Oh yeah? Even after what happened on top of Kijara Falls?”

“W-who told you about that?!”

Alvin glanced over to find Jude staring up at him, eyes wide in horror.

“It’s a secret~” Alvin answered in a sing-song voice.

Jude leaned back against him with a sigh. “You’re incorrigible.”

“I’ve been told that’s part of my charm.”

Jude elbowed him in the side, which just made Alvin break into a laugh.

After a few beats, Jude spoke up again. “You know we’re more than happy to help you, Alvin.”

“I know. I know. I just…” He tried to think of the right words. “It’s hard.”

Jude squeezed his hand lightly. “I know.”

“Thanks…” Even now, Alvin hated asking people for help. But if there was anything he’d learned about his friends, it’s that they were all too happy to lend a hand when he needed it. He was still getting used to accepting that. “Hey, Jude.”

“Hm?”

“I’ll take you to see the fireworks next year.”

Jude chuckled. “It’s okay. I think I already got my wish.”


End file.
